By IANS,
New Delhi : With 31,800 personnel set to join the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force soon, the troopers stationed at high altitude check posts would get relief, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Monday.
Speaking at the 50th Raising Day ceremony of the ITBP, Chidambaram said: “Earlier, many ITBP jawans were posted at high altitude, remote check posts for six months. This number was slowly brought down to three. So, with these additional personnel, the number shall come down further.”
The home minister added that the government was keen to provide modern weaponry and increased monetary allowance to the force.
“Building of 27 new roads in the border areas for the ITBP is also underway,” added Chidambaram.
The ITBP was conceived Oct 24, 1962 in the wake of the India-China war. Presently it is deployed on border guarding duties from the Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jachep La in Arunachal Pradesh covering 3,488 km of the India-China border.
Most of the ITBP officers are professionally-trained mountaineers and skiers.
The minister honoured six ITBP officers with the president’s police medal for distinguished service and 26 with police medals for meritorious service.